1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data receiving apparatus comprising receiving means for receiving a mail data set, storing means for storing the mail data set received by the receiving means, and display means for displaying the mail data set stored in the storing means.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, a mail system is composed of a server and a terminal, and a mail as sent from the terminal of a sender is once latched in the server so as to be sent to a terminal of a receiver in response to a demand from the receiver terminal. In a mail system using a portable telephone, when a mail from the sender terminal is received by the server, the server notifies the portable telephone of the mail reception. In response to this notificaion, the portable telephone receives the mail over the public switched phone network for portable telephone.
When the terminal of the mail system as described above are to be used by a plurality of persons, even the mail which is addressed to one of the plurality of persons and desired to be secret from the remainder of the plurality of persons, may be read by the remainder. Therefore, the persons assign their individual passwords to prevent the mail from being accessed by others. When terminals are managed by individuals, on the other hand, passwords may be established for all the mails. In this case, however, even when a mail having no problem with access by others is password-protected, the password has to be inputted for each confirmation.
In order not to password-protect the mail having no problem with access by others in the conventional terminal managed by individuals, the instant invention provides a method for keeping a plurality of stored data sets secret one by one, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 62-25364 and 63-293664. In an electronic apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-25364, more specifically, of a plurality of data sets to be stored in the electronic apparatus, only data sets to be kept secret are provided with identification codes concerning the secret. In the electronic apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-293664, a plurality of data sets to be stored in the electronic apparatus are provided with flags for discriminating whether or not the data sets are to be kept secret. It is determined by the operator, when the data sets are to be stored in the electronic apparatus, whether or not the identification codes are added to the data sets, and whether or not the data sets are to be kept secret.
When the technique to be employed in the electronic apparatus described above is applied to the terminal of the mail system, the received mails have to be made secret one by one after received, requiring complicated operations, if they come from a person whose mails should not be accessed by others. Moveover, before the operator specifies the received mail as the secret data, any person can confirm the content of the mail so that there is a problem that the mail may be accessed by others.